Hercules’ Seventh Labor - The Cretan Bull

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 427. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MOESIA INFERIOR, Nicopolis ad Istrum. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ Pentassarion (28mm, 14.07 g, 6h). Labor of Hercules type. Aurelius Gallus, consularis. • AVT • L • CEPT • CEVHP PER, laureate head right / VP AVP GALLOV NIKOPOLITWN, PPOC ICTP in exegue, Hercules standing left, holding with both hands head of Cretan Bull standing left behind; Bull has forelegs and tail raised; club on ground behind Hercules’ right foot; bow in exergue. Voegtli type 4m; Stoll, Herakles 39 (same dies); AMNG I 1309; SNG München -; Varbanov 2134. Near EF, green patina, small hairline flan crack. Rare.

From the James E. Cain Collection.

Compelled to capture the bull as his seventh Labor, Hercules sailed to Crete. There, Minos, the king of Crete, gave the hero permission to take the bull away, as it had been causing destruction on the island. Hercules strangled the Bull with his bare hands, and shipped it back to Athens. Although Eurystheus wished to sacrifice the Bull to Hera, the goddess refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on her sworn enemy. The bull was released and wandered into the town of Marathon, where it became known as the Marathonian Bull.